Frequently, valuable minerals are naturally occurring in ore bodies located in subterraneous deposits. Due to the location of these deposits, often far beneath the surface of the earth and within hard rock, methods of mining to remove them are required.
A modern and presently used method for underground mining entails the removal of ore from a panel of rock, known as a stope. The stope is accessible via an access drive cut into the earth in the level below the ore body to be mined The rock and ore of the stope are fragmented and removed using explosives and once the area has been mined, a stope void remains. This space cannot be left within the ground and, as such, the void is backfilled to fill the created underground space.
Rock must be fragmented by blasting operations to enable its collection and removal from a mine Fragmented rock needs to expand into additional space due to its increased volume. Once a stope void has been backfilled, all space has been removed. Hence subsequent ore collection operations are delayed by the need for creating space blasted rock fragments. Commonly, slot rise holes are drilled up from the access drive, in the ore adjacent to the backfilled stope. These holes provide the necessary space for expanded rock. Explosives are then used to fragment the rock which enables its removal. The drilling of slot rise holes into which blasted rock is allowed to expand is both costly and time-consuming.
The present invention attempts to overcome at least in part the aforementioned disadvantages of previous methods of mining.